five year anniversary

this month i get to celebrate five years of the safe hole.
a blog i created with the idea of being able to share with others that didn't understand
when i mention the words "wargaming" or "tabletop gaming",
or even when i ask a manager at work if i can have the disposed packing foam or
discarded cardboard for terrain making.

then i'm able to show them what i do with blog pics and posts.

but i also ask myself why bother keeping a blog.
and a friend said to me it's a showcase of how i progressed over time and see how
things evolved and improve.

over the years on the blog you can see i went through phases of gaming which is
funny to read and watch.

chatting with my friend Doctor Merkury about the idea of creating a blog,
i couldn't think of a cool name for it.
so of course we were spit-balling dumb names and on a some what of a dare
and name it the safe hole, i really thought "meh, why not."
i didn't think it was gonna last this long.

(for a shameless plug, go visit Doc Merkury's blog, doctormerkury blog)

the first year was just a person posting just whatever.
i was excited to share with anyone who took the time to look at the blog.
i posted about old memories from back in my glory days of playing 40k and not
knowing what i was doing.

remembering the very first warhammer 40k figure i ever got.
was a chaos renegade with a mult-melta #022317.

when i was getting heavily into 40k Kill Team of course i picked Death Guard.
at this point my painting style was changing, using more watered down paint, creating
washes, and blending colors.

had a go at making some sci-fi industrial terrain pieces.

at the time i was gifted with a lot of Star Wars: Clone Wars figures,
using them along with Fistful of Lead: Galactic Heroes rules...

...and using Games Workshop Space Hulk tiles,
took the Clone Wars inside and fun with some close quarters.

 

with 2020 even with the pandemic kicking into gear so did my gaming.
i felt like i was a kid going through so many phases growing up i didn't
know if i was coming or going. 

 

earlier in the year i was asked to help a friend paint some of his miniatures,
several historical and fantasy.

the beginning of introducing my girlfriend Rita, and her boys to the wargaming hobby.


after painting up the Death Guard for GW Kill Team,
i finally got to fulfill a wish i always wanted and that was a Space Wolves army, sort of.

2021 was such a year in more ways than one.
as 2020 was coming to an end i was beginning to go through a withdraw of
tabletop gaming and started to get into board games that i could play with Rita at home.



with games like HATE and Cthulhu: Death May Die, we were able to survive the
pandemic and have fun doing so.



during the summer one of my gaming buddies had a passing of a friend which was a
long time gamer as well.
before his collection was to be sold off and the proceeds donated we were able to
   pick out what we liked.
with this opportunity i was able to come across old models i even had when i growing up.
many of the figures in my pulp and fantasy are from this tragic ordeal which i cherish
every day.


more times with the girlfriend and the boys.
everyone loves being chase by a dinosaur!

i would have to say because of RIta and her boys i was able to find my love for
tabletop wargaming since i spent most of 2021 just board game playing.
but that all came crashing down going into 2022 there was only one thing on my
mind and it involved two letters...D&D.

 

 
after playing some throw away games, Rita and I decided on starting a HATE
campaign or what they call a chronicle.

even though we made a lot of mistakes while going through the chronicle, we had
so much fun.

had so much fun making terrain out of furniture upholstery that i took it all
and made a rocky landscape on the table one night.



bought some Wizkids Dungeons and Dragons miniatures because Wiley Games
was preparing to release their Might & Melee fantasy rules.
unbeknownst to me this was the beginning of....


spring of 2022 was the beginning of Dungeons and Dragons.
almost everything else was put aside because i did a swan dive into the D&D asphalt.

 
after a few years together i finally sat Rita down and taught her the in's and out's
of Fistful of Lead rules.



throughout the year i was posting my D&D group's first campaign run.
as i go back and read those posts and i have to say it was awesome.
at one point Rita's boys wanted to play so we created another group just for them.
and at one point we had what i like to call our own "Infinity War" moment when
we combined the two groups for a massive encounter.
such a great time!!


took Fistful of Lead rules and combined it with their supplement rules Tales of Horror.

2022 coming to an end was such a wonderful time.
the ending of our first D&D campaign was over the horizon, Rita and her boys
were getting more and more into the hobby, i knew 2023 was gonna be nothing
but Dungeons and Dragons.


in between D&D and not playing D&D i came across another game.
Perilous Tales a nice game that came be played solo or co-op.


finally got around to paint a classic GW graveyard terrain set.



went and printed tokens and the cards for Perilous Tales.
making it more "professional" than haggard like i started it with.
with the rules still in beta i ran with my imagination and even did a few fantasy games
within the perimeters of the rules of Perilous Tales.


ran a Fistful of Lead relentless zombie game.
at this point Rita was getting increasingly better at tabletop games.


took a chance and ordered a 3d printed figure from Etsy.
i was more than pleased and excited to use this figure for a future D&D encounter.


went through a wild west spell and bought several buildings and finally got
into painting the miniatures a good friend from New Jersey gave me way back
in Dec 2022.



July 2023 was the apex of our D&D group's adventures.




September is when i handed the helm of DM'ing to fellow group member Jon
and gave him several months to run a campaign of his own that coincide with what
i was running at the time.

finally since being together i was able to take Rita to a gaming convention.
took her to a HMGS convention, Fall In!
we had a blast and already looking forward to the 2024 season of gaming cons.


to close out 2023 i was able to take D&D to Rita's and run a session for her youngest
and his friend who was also interested in Dungeons and Dragons.

so with all that the first five years of this blog is pretty much a journey of me
sharing the hobby with folks local and around the world but
most importantly sharing with someone
i care and love, even though i created this blog five months before ever meeting her.
i pretty much dedicate this blog to my love, Rita.
for letting me be who i am and do what i love, for being understanding and excited as
i am for the hobby.
looking forward to see what the next five years will bring.